There are many lines of Scripture where the language is amazingly contemporary.
In John’s story of the Wedding at Cana, we find Mary bustling about and coming to Jesus fretting, “They have no wine!” Jesus responds, “What concern is that to me?” In other words, back off –-I’m not ready to do my first miracle yet. Yet Mary, confident that she will prevail, tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Jesus steps up and changes the water into wine. The Jewish mother prevails.
In the lesson for this coming Sunday, we hear about Hannah, deeply upset that she cannot have a child (she prefers a male child, of course). Her husband Elkannah, attempting to comfort her, responds, “Am I not more to you than ten male children?”
Don’t you love this? Sounding like something right off a sitcom such as “Two and a Half Men,” Elkannah’s response is the equivalent of “Hey, Babe, you’ve got me – what more could you want?” You can almost hear the swagger. Of course, Elkannah has another wife and kids, so he’s got his bases covered.
The Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”) and the Christian Scriptures (“New Testament”) are full of stories about life the way it really is, as well as words of great comfort and tenderness: “And God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.”
It is a great stew of a book, written by many people over 3,000 years, and it is a book about God and about us, and how one finds the other. It is our text and what a text it is.
See you in church – where you will hear more about Hannah and the clueless Elkannah.
Barbara
